Media advisory: KU expert available to speak on national call to improve science, math education

LAWRENCE — Steven Case, co-director of the UKanTeach program at the University of Kansas, is available to speak with media about the National Math and Science Initiative’s call for the United States to invigorate the way it teaches science, technology, engineering and math — the so-called STEM subjects.

The National Math and Science Initiative is convening 25 experts tonight to discuss ways the United States can revamps its STEM education systems to ensure American students are more prepared to succeed in a global economy and to ensure the nation’s workforce readiness for the future.

UKanTeach is an innovative program designed to encourage more students to become secondary math and science teachers. The program allows students to earn a teaching certificate while simultaneously completing an undergraduate degree in mathematics, biology, chemistry, earth and space science or physics. The goal is to produce more STEM teachers for Kansas, thereby improving students’ knowledge and competitiveness in those fields. In its first few years, 51 students have completed the program and an additional 23 will graduate in May to become math and science teachers for schools in Kansas and across the nation.

The four-year program retains students in the STEM fields at a much higher rate than the national average and also has a higher four year graduation rate than the average.

The National Math and Science Initiative estimates that about 3 million jobs in the STEM fields in the United States remain unfilled due to lack of a properly trained workforce.